Russians plan to plant mutant trees with with super fast growth rate

In the autumn of 2009 the trees, currently in greenhouses, will be planted in the open air near the cities of St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.

The trees' DNA has been modified by researchers at the Institute for Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences to provide for faster growth and harder wood pulp.

Every year the forest area of the Earth shrinks by 9.5 million hectares. At the moment the transgenic plantations only make up five percent of the world's forests, but already produce 25 percent of the world's lumber. Researchers hope that growing genetically modified trees will help preserve natural forests from devastation.

The tests will take three years, and if they are succesful researchers hope to start spreading the transgenic trees on an industrial scale.

However it would require a change in Russian legislation, currently banning large plantations of transgenic plants.